Paul the Octopus: a farewell to arms

In Paul beat a British heart – or hearts, as octopuses have three.

Paul, probably the best known octopus of his generation, has died at his modest home at Oberhausen, in the Ruhr, aged two and a half. If an Octopus vulgaris by nature, he showed uncommon skills in predicting all seven World Cup games played by Germany, bringing almost universal admiration. An exception was the German football fan who sent Paul's owner a recipe for octopus after the sea-green incorruptible cephalopod forecast a Spanish victory in the semi-final. Events almost seemed determined by this tentacular oracle.

Perhaps that was the fear of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denounced followers of Paul as unworthy to lead the world. But in Paul beat a British heart – or hearts, as octopuses have three – for he hatched in Weymouth. It is to be hoped that his native land (or sea) will be remembered in a suitable epitaph, preferably in octosyllabic verse.